Anyone played both? What are the differences? Is one of them easier to get into and learn the basics in?

I have played both, and I can tell you Xsyon is slightly better to me. Even though I currently play neither one.

Wurm maybe a more complete game at this point and has more in it, but the graphics are still pretty bad even though it just got a massive graphical overhaul. The combat system just flat out sucks and is a relic from the 1970s. The character customization options are non-existant. And the grind is just stupid. If you are into PvP, you will find that you need to grind for at least 5 months before you will even be considered low level skill of PvP, and that is if you manage to get the gear to do it. The community there is very clickish and fanboy driven, god help you if you say anything against Rolf and Wurm, you will be burned at the stake on the forums and possibly banned for pointing out obvious flaws in the game. It is also a real money driven game. So if you want silver coins in game, well pony up some Eurodollars and buy some. If you want to have a safe place to keep your stuff, aka a deed, you need to pay for it. And keep paying for it every month. If you are on a PvP server your deed can be drained of its money by other people if it is not propperly protected. And buying more "Spirit" guards isn't a good defense, they just cost a lot of real money per month and are easily avoided and killed by most players who have played for longer than a year.

Xsyon is not without its problems also. Development is slow.... slow would be nice, development is stagnant. The skill system isn't as grind driven as Wurm but it still is a grind. The combat system is really its shinning point, it is driven by the player not totally by some random number generator that is rolling some D20 behind the scenes. Character customization is another highlight of Xsyon, you can look completely different than anyone else if you want to and be fine.

I have been playing Wurm for a little over 5 years. In all that time I think the longest I have taken a break from the game is about 60 days. Otherwise, I have pretty much played every day for multiple hours per day. And yet, after five years, there are still things I have not done in Wurm. Contrasting that, I have made two attempts to play Xsyon. My first was for two months and my second just a few days. I will try and add to the information you already have about both games.

The #1 biggest beef people will say about Wurm is the graphics. But to be totally honest, Wurm graphics are not bad at all. In fact, some of the graphics are extremely realistic, especially with the scenery. Character animations have improved a lot, but they are not quite up to par with what we would consider standard. Water, trees, animals (with the new models), housing materials, etc. are all excellent - some much better than Xsyon imho. For example, I would take Wurm trees any day of the week over the snake-wiggling unrealistic blobby trees of Xsyon. However, Xsyon excels over Wurm in combat and in the variety of things that you can forage and find. Also, I think the construction system in Xsyon is a bit better than Wurm because of the great variety in types. The crafting grind is excellent in both games if you really like to work for your skills so that they mean something. It would take longer in Wurm to reach max skill in a single skill than to max in many skills in Xsyon.

Now I will mention what is perhaps the greatest difference between the two games - to me. In Xsyon, you can own land but only a tiny piece of land unless you are in a village that has a population which allows more land. In Wurm, you can have as much land all to yourself as you can afford. Yes, land cost silver coins (in game money) and the costs to play Wurm are much higher than Xsyon because of it. But the fact that I can own my own private village (my current primary deed is 6000 game tiles in size) makes Wurm the winner for me overall. The second greatest difference to me is the end game. Xsyon's end game is a small village full of baskets of items you will probably never use. Wurm's end game is a deed of your own, crafting what items you want with skills you chose to master, and selling those items to other players in a market that is very mature. Just take a look at the Wurm Online forum and you will see that.

Xsyon is a nice game. But at this stage, it is not a mature game and the player base is very small. However, it is a gatherer's dream as there are things to gather in Xsyon unlike any other game I have ever seen. But what to do with all those baskets is the question I never could answer.

Watch some Youtube videos on both games and focus on the aspects of a sandbox you like (pvp or crafting) and see for yourself. That's the only way to know which you would like better.
Cheers.

Now I will mention what is perhaps the greatest difference between the two games - to me. In Xsyon, you can own land but only a tiny piece of land unless you are in a village that has a population which allows more land. In Wurm, you can have as much land all to yourself as you can afford. Yes, land cost silver coins (in game money) and the costs to play Wurm are much higher than Xsyon because of it. But the fact that I can own my own private village (my current primary deed is 6000 game tiles in size) makes Wurm the winner for me overall. The second greatest difference to me is the end game. Xsyon's end game is a small village full of baskets of items you will probably never use. Wurm's end game is a deed of your own, crafting what items you want with skills you chose to master, and selling those items to other players in a market that is very mature. Just take a look at the Wurm Online forum and you will see that.

One thing I find odd is that you are willing to pay for the monthly upkeep, plus the starting price of a 6000 game tile deed, which is about 37x37 sq radius Wurm tile side deed. Which is about 260$ USD give or take change in currency ratio, but if you were do buy accounts in Xsyon for that, you would have 8 or 9 accounts, and never have to pay monthly again for the upkeep giving you a 42x42 sq radius Xsyon totem range.
Not sure how you count Xsyon is "tiny" then use wurms as a better way. Now if you were to take that monthly cost you are doing in wurm, you could by a new account every 1 or 2 months, giving you even more space up to 200x200 sq radius in Xsyon.

Now I will agree with you on the economy point, and some of the other aspects, but the radius and size does not make sense. Having said that, note that Wurm has different sized tiles Xsyon is much more detailed in this respect, but I wouldn't call it "tiny".

Another thing I wanted to note, is the "end game" because the items in Xsyon end game are pretty solid level when you compare them to Wurm end game. Granted it takes longer to get to Wurm's end game gear, than in Xsyon, and Wurms are more powerful relatively, but I surely wouldn't say items you would never use. But because Wurms economy is more robust ( wouldn't say its good either) you can value it more.

MrDDT

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

Eyesgood, is and always will be a promoter for Wurm. DDT pretty much answered the size question is perfect fashion.

Wurm is a shop driven game, if you have the funds you can achieve more than anyone else quicker but not more so than someone who puts in the time and effort as they can get to that same level with invested time. Xsyon has no shop and so everyone has to grind their way to the top, IMO I like this type of system better and yes we need a working economy but in due time.

The wurm community is as Hodo described in his post, it is like that in game and on the forum. I suggest not using the forum to point things out but if you want to praise and worship it then you should be fine. Just take a few moment to read some of the posts but you'll only see those that are in line with what hodo pointed out and most usually get removed that are not pro wurm. I've had posts removed simply pointing out design flaws in a newly added item or feature only to get ignored or have posts removed, but got attention once you bleed and exploit the system. I have been contacted by Rolf and explained how it was done and also pointed him to a dead bug report that never was looked in to, he doesn't care though and that has been going on for a while.

Xsyon has it's flaws just as any game does but between the two I much prefer Xsyon because I like the systems that are in place and more thought has been put in to them than what I've used and experienced in wurm, as a former player from alpha/beta/gold 1/gold 2. That is nearly 8 years in the game until I finally woke up and seen how much wasted time I plugged in to a shop driven, grinding hole. The wurm grind is unlike any game on the market, when you break items down by multiple items that are required and those take you hours upon hours to get and take to high ql, it will drive you crazy once you stand back and look at something you spent months grinding the skill for and countless hours improving and for what? The item is the same anyone else can make and you are either using it or selling it. Gather, grind, sell/use, rinse, and repeat. Think about that when you do try the game out and give it a go.

Xsyon has it's flaws just as any game does but between the two I much prefer Xsyon because I like the systems that are in place and more thought has been put in to them than what I've used and experienced in wurm, as a former player from alpha/beta/gold 1/gold 2. That is nearly 8 years in the game until I finally woke up and seen how much wasted time I plugged in to a shop driven, grinding hole. The wurm grind is unlike any game on the market, when you break items down by multiple items that are required and those take you hours upon hours to get and take to high ql, it will drive you crazy once you stand back and look at something you spent months grinding the skill for and countless hours improving and for what? The item is the same anyone else can make and you are either using it or selling it. Gather, grind, sell/use, rinse, and repeat. Think about that when you do try the game out and give it a go.

I'm confused on how it's different in Xsyon than Wurm on those things you listed, in fact, I believe Wurms system is working better than Xsyon because items have a value/use/worth.

In Wurm and in Xsyon everyone can get skills to 100 both take time, Xsyon's time to get 100 in a skill is MUCH MUCH faster in fact, so finding a crafter in Wurm that is 100 skill in something is extremely rare. So saying "same as anyone else can make" is a huge stretch in Wurm, but not in Xsyon. Also of course crafted items would be either used or sold, what else in any game do you do with crafted items?

I would not use that as a negative for Wurm online or Xsyon. I wish I could sell items in Xsyon but the economy is so crappy that you can't. Few people are even willing to pony up anything for something crafted by another player, they are much much more likely to just want to "do it themselves", because of how poorly done the economy is in Xsyon, almost as if no thought at all was given into economy in Xsyon.

The grind in Wurm is very harsh and I can see where most people would see that as a bad thing, I even felt how harsh it is and became bored with it. Xsyon's a grind is very easy and getting 5+ skills to 100 can be done in a week or two, which makes it so that true crafters are rarely worth putting effort into their craft as getting 100 in Xsyon is easy, and the items you make are barely better than a low/moderate skilled crafter making it. On top of that, the usefulness of high QL and high skilled crafted items are few and far between.

Xsyon needs a major look at economy and drive of doing things (like gear to kill big game animals). There is little survival or need of high tier items which should drive skilled crafting / gathering and in turn would drive skilled gatherers also. Until this is done I fear Xsyon's numbers will be hovering around the same level they currently are.

Major reason not to play Wurm IMO is simply the outdated graphics/interface. If you can get past that, Wurm is a great game with a LOT of sandbox features.

MrDDT

"Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."

Eyesgood, is and always will be a promoter for Wurm. DDT pretty much answered the size question is perfect fashion.

I am a promoter OF Wurm not FOR Wurm. I don't work for Rolf and never would. But, to be fair to me, I would promote ANY sandbox MMO that is good. In fact, I have promoted THIS MMO to friends many times. And please dear sir, do not say that I worship any MMO. I don't. And I will be perfectly honest with you. I tried Xsyon because I do not worship Wurm. I tried Xsyon because I saw the potential for it to surpass Wurm. But for reasons I don't need to repeat, I stayed with Wurm. However, I would LOVE for Xsyon to succeed and if it surpassed Wurm - that would be fine. In the end, I just want a great sandbox MMO that is solid and mature with the systems that make crafting fun and viable. So far, Wurm is the only one I feel meets that need for me personally, even though I admit whole-heartedly that I HATE how much it costs me to play Wurm. I was one of the major complainers on the forum when Rolf jacked the premium by 60%. I still get boiled about it.

So, I just wanted to let my intentions be known. I am not some paid Wurmian sent out to promote the game and discredit others. Those that know me know that I am sincere and objective - albeit not to everyone's liking I am sure.

One thing I find odd is that you are willing to pay for the monthly upkeep, plus the starting price of a 6000 game tile deed, which is about 37x37 sq radius Wurm tile side deed. Which is about 260$ USD give or take change in currency ratio, but if you were do buy accounts in Xsyon for that, you would have 8 or 9 accounts, and never have to pay monthly again for the upkeep giving you a 42x42 sq radius Xsyon totem range.
Not sure how you count Xsyon is "tiny" then use wurms as a better way. Now if you were to take that monthly cost you are doing in wurm, you could by a new account every 1 or 2 months, giving you even more space up to 200x200 sq radius in Xsyon.

Now I will agree with you on the economy point, and some of the other aspects, but the radius and size does not make sense. Having said that, note that Wurm has different sized tiles Xsyon is much more detailed in this respect, but I wouldn't call it "tiny".

Another thing I wanted to note, is the "end game" because the items in Xsyon end game are pretty solid level when you compare them to Wurm end game. Granted it takes longer to get to Wurm's end game gear, than in Xsyon, and Wurms are more powerful relatively, but I surely wouldn't say items you would never use. But because Wurms economy is more robust ( wouldn't say its good either) you can value it more.

I guess I wasn't considering the ability to purchase alts and alt up the village to increase a personal totem space. That would work and yes it probably is much cheaper than Wurm!

@MrDDT, The Sandbox game world development is booming right now. Instead of one or two indi-titles coming out, there are 4 this year alone that I have been tracking not including those made by mods of existing games and turned into persistent online worlds.
-The Repopulation
-Life is Feudal
-Gloria Victis
-Arch Age

Those are just a few, there are about a half dozen if not more others that I don't remember the name to.